


Merry Christmas, Baby

by emma98



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: And again in 2013 and make even most-er of Christmas, And they make the most of Christmas, Darcy and Steve meet in 2012, F/M, Steve Rogers Feels, and then Hydra is bad because they are bad, background Bucky/Nat - Freeform, poorly constructed Christmas smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 00:56:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9098476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emma98/pseuds/emma98
Summary: Steve met the girl of his dreams in a hotel bar during Christmas of 2012.  And they made a promise to meet back up again in 2013.And then she just disappeared.  So Steve keeps going back to that same bar every Christmas, holding onto the hope that she'll be back.He's not prepared for what has happened when she finally does come back.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what I'm doing here. I apologize in advance. This was not supposed to be rated mature. And yet, here it is.

**Merry Christmas, Baby**

 

* * *

 

 

No one knew what Steve Rogers did during Christmas.  

 

Natasha had her suspicions, especially after she learned later from Bucky what Steve had gotten up to on that first Christmas back in 2012, straight out of the ice.  Far be it from her to judge, but it was an odd sort of Christmas tradition to have.

 

What did Steve do that first Christmas?

 

Well, he found himself in a bar in Washington DC, in the midst of negotiating terms with Fury in order to consult with SHIELD.  And at that bar, Natasha knows that he met a lovely little brunette.  And he hit it off quite well with her.

 

And then he disappeared for three whole days.

 

And when he resurfaced, he had been brighter.  Happier.  New and clean and eager.  

 

Bucky would never betray Steve’s confidence entirely, Natasha got her intel in 2016 through careful, noninvasive questioning.  But what she had pieced together said that Steve found himself in the bar of a hotel on Christmas Eve, right before a big snowstorm, intent on just nursing a glass of whiskey when the lady of his dreams walked in.  Bucky was very clear that she had been the lady of his dreams.

 

Curvy and full-figured.  Brunette.  Pouting lips.  And so much sass that she had made him snort whiskey through his nose when she had turned down another bar patron who had been overly eager to impress her.  The snow storm had Steve offering her use of his bed in the overbooked hotel, where he had intended on then sleeping on the pullout.    His good intentions were for nothing though, because after non stop conversation with the mystery woman for eleven straight hours in his room, she had kissed him.  And then the kissing led to...other things that kept them occupied for the next three days.  

 

Steve had been downright joyous directly afterwards.

 

Of course the effects had faded after a while.  But Natasha watched him carefully during the Christmas of 2013, when he strayed from his DC apartment and went towards that same hotel bar.

 

He came back three days later, and was certainly not brighter or happier.  He was morose and sad and Natasha had decided to make her New Year's resolution for 2014 finding Steve a date, which was one of the only missions she had ever completely failed.

 

The same thing happened every year.  No matter where Steve was, he'd head back to DC, spend three days away, and then come back, more dejected and miserable than he'd been before.  Since 2013, he'd been absolutely dejected every time he came back.  

 

So she knew that Steve was heading to DC, even if he was a wanted criminal in America.  She knew he would find a way to make it down from his team's safehold in the wilds of Canada, to get to DC.  You could set your clock to that particular habit of Steve's.

 

Even if Bucky was back, out of cryofreeze and settling in nicely at the new base.  Natasha kind of figured this would make Steve want to leave for Christmas even more.  

 

"I'm heading out," Steve told her gruffly, two days before Christmas.  "I'll be back. Just, watch over Bucky?  I explained to him and he said he understands, but, I'm just worried about him."

 

"Sure," she nodded, trying not to appear too eager to find out what was happening.  She wondered if she could manage to tail him this year and find out.  Her phone buzzed with a specific ringtone she hadn't heard in quite some time and the plans to figure out why Steve was so insistent on being miserable in Washington DC every Christmas were put on hold.  She walked away from Steve and answered the phone quietly, "Lewis?"

 

"Oh, hey, I was hoping this number would still work," Darcy sighed in relief.  "What the hell happened?  Heimdall dropped me off at a massive and mostly empty facility in upstate New York, and Tony is MIA, and some maroon skinned buff dude with JARVIS’ voice is moping and Rhodey isn't answering his phone.  Where is everyone?  What in the hell happened?"

  


"So many things," Natasha sighed.  She hadn’t spoken to Darcy in years.  The girl had fallen from the face of the Earth and Natasha and her considerable skill set had not been able to find her.  "Where have you been?"

 

"Uhm---with Thor and Jane?  Well, before that I was kind of being held prisoner on an alien planet, but I'm okay now," Darcy answered quickly.  There was a curious sound over the line, like Darcy was about to choke or gag, a noise that had Natasha alert and Darcy suddenly moving things very quickly.  "I, uh...I have a problem."

 

"What can I do for you, Darcy?" Natasha asked quietly, genuinely meaning it.  The girl had accidentally saved her life some time after the Chitauri Invasion.  Natasha genuinely owed her.

 

"I need to get to DC, in like, twenty-four hours."

 

* * *

 

 

Steve was beginning to hate Christmas.  

 

Four years ago, Christmas had been absolutely amazing.  He had met her four years ago.  A beautiful lady, straight off of the pages of the pinups he used to sketch for an extra ration back during the war.  She'd been buxom and gorgeous and had a wicked mouth on her, painted red and ready to throw out snarky little comments or try to bait him into little arguments about the merits of hotel shampoo, of all things.

 

Three days of bliss in his hotel room had followed.  She didn't have family, and didn't have anyone waiting for her.  And he had even less than that, really.  It'd been the best three days he'd had since coming out of the ice.  The bill for the room service by the end of it had been astronomical, and it had been so very worth it.

 

Darcy. The best Christmas present Steve had ever gotten.

 

At the end of their three days, Darcy had admitted she had to leave the country in a few weeks, and Steve knew he probably didn't have the time to be dating.  She programmed her number into his cellphone and texted herself from it immediately and made him promise to keep in touch.  But they’d also promised they'd meet at the same hotel next Christmas, to see if things were different in their lives, to see if either was ready for a more permanent commitment.

 

Three hundred and sixty one days of text messages followed.  It hadn’t taken Steve long to realize that the woman he’d impulsively made a move on at Christmas was absolutely perfect for him.  As the days wore on, he realized that he was digging himself deeper and deeper, and falling for her completely, even though he was lying to her the entire time.  He wasn’t Steven Buchanan, private security and former military.  

 

He was falling in love with Darcy Lewis, a scientist’s assistant.  She happened to know Thor too, but she hadn’t mentioned him by name to Steve, just referred to him as _Big Blondie_ , but he’d seen her face on a file on Maria Hill’s desk.  He knew that she wasn’t exactly telling him everything too.  But his sin felt greater, she had no idea who he really was and he had no idea how to even begin telling her.

 

And at Christmas of  2013, they had met again, but they didn't discuss whether things were different or who they really were.  They simply collided and were a mess of tangled limbs and sweat and flushed skin.  Steve sat at the bar in 2016 and could remember everything, every press of soft lips against his skin, every grin and throaty laugh from her, and each heated and lovely moment that passed as if it was yesterday.

 

* * *

 

**_2013_ **

  


“I missed you,” Steve whispered as Darcy came back into the room after running downstairs to pick up the pizza delivery.  Steve hadn’t argued with her about being the one to make a run for it.  For one, he’d been completely passed out in satiated bliss.  He smiled as she placed the three boxes of pizza on the bedstand table and then pulled off her sweatshirt and tossing it somewhere in the vicinity of the front door.  

 

His mouth watered as she shimmied off her yoga pants, leaving her clad in a skimpy pair of deep red panties that were essentially a scrap of satin and a band of lace.  She had told him Merry Christmas when he had uncovered them hours earlier and he wordlessly promised Santa to be a very good boy for the unforeseeable future if he got to uncover such presents every day.  

 

Darcy climbed up on the sumptuous king sized bed that Steve was sprawled out on and wasted no time in straddling his bare hips, the satin of her panties tickling against his thighs.  His hands went for her waist, even as she tried to lean over and grab for one of the pizza boxes.  

 

“I’m starving, dude,” Darcy declared.  She giggled as Steve managed to bring his head up to get his lips to graze the tip of her right breast.  “I know that you’re hungry too, your stomach growling in your sleep is what woke me up to begin with…”

 

“I’m starving,” Steve promised her, before letting his mouth latch on to the taught peak of her breast, his tongue laving against her tightening nipple.  He let his right hand wander from her waist, delving beneath the band of lace of her panties.  His index and pinky finger grazed the creases of her thighs as his middle and ring finger ran along the velvet lips of her sex back and forth in teasing little swipes.  

 

Darcy sat upright on his thighs and looked down at Steve’s hand obscenely stretching the satin of her panties and she let out a moan as her head fell back when she felt his middle finger stroke inside of her slowly.  As good as he was with his mouth, his fingers were also insanely talented.  He bit down on his bottom lip as he stared up at her before he gently eased his ring finger into his stroking of her warm wet walls and marveled at the blissful smile on her face.

 

He wanted to taste her, and made a movement to stop his current ministrations to bring her up to his mouth, she gripped his wrist with both hands and began rocking against his hand, letting out a stuttering breath as the heel of his hand pressed right on her clit at just the right pressure.  

 

“I’m hungry,” Steve reminded her playfully.

 

“Don’t you dare stop if you know what’s good for you,” Darcy breathed before a stuttering whining sound left her lips as Steve curled those talented fingers, searching and pressing for the spots that he knew made her toes curl.

 

Darcy had missed this so much.  ‘Sexy texting’ as Steve had deemed it and thirteen phone calls in the last few months hadn’t been enough.  To feel him solid underneath her and _inside_ of her was so much better than a grainy encrypted photo of him lying in a darkened room and then hearing him breathe hard as he described what he wanted to do to her when he finally got his hands back on her.  Now she could feel him doing just what he said he would do, stretch her limits and push deep inside of her until she was a writhing, breathless mess.

 

“Come for me, my pretty girl, let me see you,” Steve urged her, the seam where satin and lace met on her panties ripping under the rapid, strong stroking of his fingers.  Her chest went flushed and he groaned in appreciation as she slowly fell over the edge, her entire body going stiff for three precious seconds before she began trembling.  

 

He slowed his movements, but kept slowly petting her wet flesh as she came down from her high, all the while smiling like a smug, satisfied man.  A flick of his wrist had the flimsy panties ripping entirely and Darcy was too euphoric in the afterglow to even think about complaining about the ruined article of clothing she had spent three months saving up for.  He tossed the scraps of fabric to the side and pulled his hand away from her, bringing them to his greedy mouth and licking them obscenely.

 

Darcy laughed at the sight of him, knowing he was being extra-playful and really couldn’t help but be charmed by it.  Steve had been so serious when she had first met him  a year ago, so sad and lonely and depressed.  She’d been so happy when he’d let her in, then kept leaving her in from the other side of the world for the next year.  She knew he had seen a lot of sadness and pain and terror in his lifetime, and she knew that she’d made a difference for him.

 

And she wanted to keep making a difference for him.

 

“M’still hungry, Darce,” Steve grinned up at her, grabbing for her so that he could pull her up his body.

 

Darcy had other ideas though and winked at him before going up higher on her knees while taking a big handful of his proudly straining erection lying against his lower stomach.  She wasted no time before sinking down on him, guiding him inside of her wet warmth, letting out a low mirthful laugh as he went slack jawed.  His blond head fell against the pillow and blue eyes rolled back into his skull in pleasure as she began a slow and torturous slide up and down his length.

 

She intercepted his hands as they went for her waist, wanting to move her up and down faster than the glacial pace she was currently keeping.  She guided those large, talented hands to her breasts and continued the torturous slow ride.  It was torturous for both of them really, because Darcy was a big fan of Steve’s usual fast, steady pace.  

 

“You sent me---me a sexy text two weeks ago--- _God_ ,” Steve gasped out as he tenderly groped at her bountiful breasts.  “Saying you wanted me to pound you into the mattress.”

 

“Did I?” Darcy arched a playful brow.  “Too bad you haven’t yet.”

 

“Oh pretty girl, you have no idea what you’re in for,” Steve chuckled before moving his hands from her breasts to her waist abruptly and Darcy let out a high pitched sound  as his hips pressed up into her hard, before he turned them effortlessly on the bed, having Darcy land with a bounce on the mattress as he hovered above her.  

 

“Mmmm,” Darcy moaned at the first rough snap of Steve’s hips against her.  “You talk a big game, Steve, but can you---oh _god_.”

 

Steve reached one hand up for the wrought iron bed frame, his muscles barely straining as he brought the second hand up, gripping the iron bar tight as he pressed into Darcy’s body so deeply that all the air pushed out of her lungs.  

 

She brought her knees up, bracketing his hips, her hands running over the musculature in his back as he began pushing and pulling into her at what felt like a superhuman pace.  Darcy could do little more than hang on for the pleasurable ride, fingertips digging into his shoulders, her mouth sucking marks onto his chest.

 

“I want you,” Steve panted above her, not from exertion, but from absolute bliss as he used the leverage of the bed frame to push and pull himself inside of the heaven of his girl.

 

“You have me,” Darcy disputed.

 

“Always...I want you always,” Steve’s words were an honest and truthful plea.  Begging and desperate as he worked over every inch of her, pounding her straight into the mattress as promised.  She was lost to the sensations, so close to the edge again as his body managed to press hard against her clit with every hard push into her.  

 

When she tumbled into another orgasm, Steve was powerless but to follow at the first flutter of her warmth against him.  He spilled himself inside of her, and collapsed shortly after, revelling in the way she stroked at his back and in his hair, her lips pressing to his neck as he came down from his high.

 

He meant to tell her that he loved her.  That he had fallen head over heels in love with her in less than a year and with an ocean in between them.  But she’d made a big silly show about pizza then, and then there had been the shower, and her coquettishly leaning against the bathroom counter and then lovely cuddling in the soft bed.  

 

Steve was confident that when he finally managed to tell her what he was really feeling, and what he really wanted, she would reciprocate.  The looks of love on her face when he kissed her was unmistakable.  He knew she felt the same as he did.

 

* * *

 

 

"I have to go back to England," Darcy had sighed as Steve stroked his fingers up and down the base of her spine.  She was sprawled on top of him on the couch, not overly eager to move, feeling completely comfortable in this man's embrace.  Steve.  Who she had technically only spent five whole days with.  “My boss is only going to make me box up her stuff while she makes out with her boyfriend."

 

"Don't go," Steve whispered suddenly.  "Stay here, in DC with me.  I have an apartment not too far."

 

"Sounds like a dream world," Darcy sighed.  "To have you every day."

 

"Well not everyday," Steve amended.  "I have a hectic schedule, but every damned day that I could, I'd come home to you, sweetheart."

 

"Dream world," Darcy repeated.  "What do you do, anyway?  Aside from build up beautiful dreams with your beautiful words out of your beautiful mouth?  And don’t say private security."

 

"Consulting,," Steve winced as he said it.  He placed a wet kiss against the lovely column of her throat and groaned.  "Let me show you what this beautiful mouth can do."

 

Darcy knew she would stay.  She didn’t need to be convinced by talented lips.  She had already fallen so hard, she didn’t know what end was up.  

 

And then she had reached into Steve's bag for a t-shirt and recognized the SHIELD insignia.  

 

And his last name printed underneath it.  His _real_ last name.

 

"Steve...Rogers?" Darcy whispered.  She blinked at him and it was like a gauzy film lifted and she tilted her head to the side.  "You're...you're Steve Rogers.  THE Steve Rogers."

  


"I---I---" Steve opened his mouth to continue his lie.  He was Steve Buchanan and he worked in private security.  But he couldn't do that to her.  He nodded.  "Steve Rogers."

 

"Oh," Darcy blinked, clearly distressed.  "And you work for these assholes, now?"

 

"SHIELD isn't---"

 

"SHIELD is a bunch of assholes," Darcy said resolutely.  She shook her head in disbelief and put the t-shirt down, immediately intent on getting out of the hotel room.  She grabbed her own bag and ran to the bathroom, changing quickly.

 

"Darcy---c'mon, please," Steve begged.  "I didn't mean to lie to you, but didn't you lie to me too? I mean, you know Thor---"

 

"I never lied to you," Darcy called out anxiously.  "My name is Darcy Lewis, I work for an astrophysicist named Jane, who was pining for _Big Blondie_ , and he just so happens to be Thor,  yes.  I can’t go around telling people I met a quintet of zany aliens.  And---and I cleared out my bank account to get here this year to see you, and I really wanted to stay and be with you, and now---"

 

"I can't go around telling women I meet in bars that I'm Captain America," Steve said quietly.  "Please, please hear me, I'll tell you the whole truth now.  I should have told you earlier, I know, but it didn’t seem like the kind of thing to put into a text message."

 

"I gotta go," Darcy whispered as she opened the door, fully clothed now.  

 

"Please," Steve breathed the word out like a prayer.

 

"Jane will need me," Darcy nodded.  "I'm---I'll..just give me a day or two to digest this.  I’ll help Jane pack and come back to the States with her and Thor.    And then maybe you can call me.  Or text me.  Or something.  You should, because this _isn’t_ a deal breaker, Steve.  I get it, I do, but I don’t trust SHIELD. And I just need a day or two to adjust to this.  I mean, this guy I've been thinking about constantly for three-hundred and sixty-two days is not quite the guy I thought he was."

 

"Darcy," Steve shook his head, desperately trying to figure out a way to get her to stay.  She didn’t seem that upset, she should have been a lot more upset with him, but she seemed to be willing to understand his reasoning.  He just didn’t want to see her leave, he wanted to keep her close and explain everything, over and over again until she forgave him.

 

But he couldn’t do that.  She wanted to leave, and he would let her do it, because it was her choice.  He stepped back and reached for her purse, handing it to her with a sad smile, looking as if someone had just told him Santa wasn’t real.

 

Darcy melted a little.  She knew he had the best of intentions, wanting to protect her from whatever ills could seep out of the life of a superhero.  But she could protect herself, she was by no means friendless.  She stood on the tops of her toes and let her hand rest against his cheek, mirroring his small, sad smile before leaning in and gently brushing her lips against his.  "I'll see you soon, Steve."

 

* * *

 

**_Present Day_ **

 

Except she didn't see him.  She never responded to a call or a text.  He'd even utilized SHIELD to try and track her down, but they said the phone number was untraceable.  Which never usually happened with SHIELD.  

 

They could track anyone.

 

So Steve did what he could.  For three Christmases, he came back to the hotel that he and Darcy had met in, hoping to see her there one more time, hoping to convince her that he knew she was right.  He should have told her before they fell into bed together who he really was.  To at least warn her to know what she was getting into.

 

And now she'd fallen off the face of the Earth.  

 

He sat at the bar on Christmas Eve, nursing his fourth beer of the night, blatantly ignoring the bartender's sympathetic  looks.  

 

"You are the saddest mother fucker I've ever seen."

 

Steve huffed out a sigh and turned to his left and sure enough, Bucky Barnes was standing there, baseball cap pulled low over his face.  

 

"You're even more of a wanted criminal than I am," Steve reminded his best friend.  "I told you not to follow."

 

"Natalia left me to go and retrieve a friend," Bucky huffed out.  "I didn't want either of us spending Christmas alone.  That's just sad."

 

"Yeah," Steve nodded, handing Bucky his beer and holding up his hand at the bartender for another one.

 

"So, you in love with Darcy?" Bucky wondered.  Steve had told him everything one night after Bucky had had a nightmare and needed a distraction.  

 

"Yeah," Steve nodded.

 

"So, that's why you never called Carter back?" Bucky questioned, and waited for Steve to nod again.  "And you're gonna keep coming back to this bar to find her, year after year?"

 

"What else can I do?  SHIELD had no answers for me," Steve shook his head.

 

"Stevie, SHIELD was infiltrated by Hydra," Bucky reminded him.  "If they wanted to get their hands on her, then they probably weren't ever gonna be eager to hand over a pretty little dame that Captain America had taken a shine to."

Steve’s eyes went wide with horror.  It had been the unspoken terror in the back of his mind for years now.  He didn’t dare think about it, because it was too terrifying.  Hydra had taken everything from Steve.  He was terrified to think that they had taken Darcy as well.  The only solace he had to keep those thoughts at bay were _Big Blondie_.  Surely Thor would raise the alarm if Darcy were in danger.

 

But Bucky knew better than anyone what Hydra was capable of, and his speaking the words made the dam in Steve’s brain break, and he was swept away in a current of anxiety.

 

"Jesus, what if---what if---" Steve panicked suddenly, his stomach turning unpleasantly and he fought back the urge to bring up his lunch all over the bar, visibly gagging at the thought of what might have befallen the woman he had fallen so deeply in love with.

 

"Please don't, I can't handle seeing other people puke right now, it---it sets me off."

 

Steve's urge to vomit disappeared at the sound of that voice.  He knew it well.  He replayed it in his mind over and over again.  He replayed voice mail messages from her that were over three years old.  He knew that voice.   He turned on the barstool very slowly, and one look at her beautiful blue-green eyes had him falling off of it and right into her, picking her up in his arms and holding her tight against his body.

 

"Jesus Christ, Rogers, let her breathe!" Natasha ordered as quietly and discreetly as she could, ever aware of her surroundings.

 

"Stay, stay with me, I'm so sorry, please stay," Steve begged.  He was well past the point for subtlety.  He was too desperate to keep her right there in her arms.  Where she belonged.  

 

Natasha glared at Bucky and gestured to Steve insistently.  He didn't like taking Steve from the pretty little dame he'd been waiting so long for, but Bucky never ignored instruction from his Natalia.  Following her instructions always made him happy, so he did that.  Gently he put a gloved left hand on Steve's shoulder and pinched with just enough pressure to get Steve to back off.

 

"Holy cow," Bucky breathed, getting a look at the little dame who Steve was fathoms deep in love with.

 

She had a little baby bump on her.  Probably about four months along, maybe.

 

"Oh," Steve blinked as he too, got a full frontal view of Darcy.  His eyes filled with immediate tears and he looked back up at Darcy's face, confused by the eager smile he saw on her face.

 

"So...I have a few things to explain, and you have to be absolutely silent while I do it," Darcy insisted.

 

"Room," Natasha held up a key card.  "You don't know who is listening."

 

The quartet made their way to the elevator.  Steve never taking his eyes off of Darcy once.  Bucky had had to steer him with his grip on the man's shoulder.  Natasha led the way, holding onto Darcy's hand tightly as the slightly smaller, very pregnant woman fretted and worried her plump bottom lip.

 

"Sweetheart," Steve breathed as soon as they got into the room, even while Natasha and Bucky checked for bugs.  "I---if you're married, or with the fella that did this to you, I'll---I'll hate it, but so long as you and your baby are safe, I'll live.  But if you're alone, I...I'll take care of you.  And the baby."

 

"Oh.  That's nice," Darcy nodded.  "Good.  Because, uhm, it's yours?"

 

* * *

 

  


Hydra had been carefully watching Captain Rogers during the Christmas of 2013.  It was lucky that they had been watching Darcy Lewis too, first in London at the end of the Convergence, then on her quick travels back to Washington DC.  When both surveillance teams realized that a vital piece to Doctor Foster's future cooperation and Captain Rogers himself were meeting up...

 

They couldn't move fast enough.

 

They attempted to snatch Darcy up the minute her feet had hit the pavement outside of the hotel.

 

But Darcy Lewis was not unprotected.  

 

She'd taken down two of the men on her own.  Giving her enough space to shout up at Heimdall, who Thor had promised her would protect her.

 

The portal had gotten her away from the immediate danger of Hydra, but it hadn't sent her to Asgard.

 

It had sent her to Alfheim.

 

Straight into the hands of a minor Baron of the planet who had hijacked the portal, who was keen to have a valuable piece of Asgard, one that Prince Thor would be willing to pay handsomely for.

 

He'd been an idiot though, and had put his victim in a sort of advanced cryo-freeze, but hadn't told Asgard that he actually HAD said victim.

 

Heimdall had searched the galaxies for Darcy Lewis, and had finally found her a few weeks ago.  Jane and the Asgardians, including Odin, had finally rescued the poor girl.

 

When she had come to, she had been in Thor’s arms, carried away from her cryofreeze, whispering about Steve and what a lovely Christmas they’d have in the private cabin all alone.  

 

And the Thor had shouted something about the precious baby that his lightning sister carried and her hands went to her stomach and suddenly, she knew she had to get back to Steve.  Immediately.

 

* * *

 

 

"You were in cryo-freeze?" Bucky asked, reaching out a hand to place on Darcy's as she sat on the large bed, retelling her tale.  "Doll, I'm so sorry."

 

"It wasn't bad, it felt like a nice dream," Darcy insisted.  "A Christmas dream."

 

"Steve," Natasha said softly.  

 

The man in question was sitting at the little desk in the corner, his eyes glazed over at hearing Darcy's story.  Three years had passed for Steve, but for Darcy it had only been three and a half months of sleep, really.  He was in some kind of shock.  

 

"I'm so sorry," Darcy whispered, sounding like she might start crying.

 

"No, no God no," Steve shook himself out of it.  He sprung out of the chair and Bucky had the presence of mind to get out of the way as Steve came to kneel by the bed, reaching out for Darcy, his hands going over hers as they lay on her thighs.  "I should have looked harder.  I should have known Hydra would want to take away what matters to me."

 

"No blame," Natasha said softly, before grabbing Bucky's left hand and leading him to the front door, intent on giving them some semblance of privacy.

 

"No blame," Steve repeated.  He let his hands move up Darcy's forearms and stared at the rotund belly that was straining against the very clothing that Darcy had been wearing when she had left him three years ago.  "That's our baby."

 

“Yeah,” Darcy smiled.

 

“You said it was safe, that I wouldn’t get you into trouble...the IUD?” Steve wondered.

 

“Yeah,” Darcy repeated.  “The IUD I was supposed to get replaced about three months into the cryofreeze.  Did you know you had supersperm?  Like---super DUPER sperm?  They live a really long time, and the deep freeze helped, I think.  But the Asgardian healers triple checked, and Thor could tell, God of Fertility, you know.”

 

“That’s my baby,” Steve whispered, his hand resting reverently over the swell of Darcy’s abdomen.

 

"Yeah," Darcy nodded eagerly.  "He's okay, Odin had the healers look over him and even though the time thing was wonky, he's three months along, but already really big and strong as a damned bull and he's--- _ours_."

 

"He?" Steve looked up at her, blinking back happy tears.

 

" _He_ ," Darcy nodded.  "I wanted to try to be surprised, but Thor let it slip when they got me out of the sleep chamber.  Something about how Baron von Dickface was lucky it was him doling out justice and not the father of the precious boy that resided in his lightning sister."

 

"That's our baby," Steve whispered.  "That's our baby boy."

 

"Our baby boy," Darcy repeated.  

 

"I love you," Steve blurted.

 

"Oh," Darcy nodded, her cheeks flushing a lovely pink, her mouth turning up at the corners gently.

 

"I loved you before, I realized that I loved you probably four months after we first met, when you texted me that silly picture of the cats dressed up as humans,” Steve revealed.

 

“I---yes, I know,” Darcy whispered.  “I loved you then too.  I did.”

 

“It's been three long years without you, worrying about you, coming to this damned bar on Christmas...and sometimes Easter, once on Labor Day.  I still love you," Steve admitted, looking up at her earnestly.  "I'd dream about you."

 

"I dreamed about you too," Darcy nodded.  "I'm sorry you had all that time alone."

 

"Don't be, it’s the furtherest thing from your fault," Steve shook his head.  He looked confident and requested with a lovely politeness, "Come home with me?"

 

"Yes," Darcy agreed readily.  "Kiss me?"

 

"Oh, sweetheart, you never have to ask," Steve murmured, before pushing up off his knees and bringing his lips to hers.  One hand rested on her cheek gently and the other stayed atop her belly bump, his fingers stroking reverently.

 

"Merry Christmas, Steve," Darcy sighed when she finally had to break away for air.  

 

"Yes, Merry Christmas.  You’re the best gift I ever got."

 

**Author's Note:**

> So now, I think I have ONE MORE Christmas story I want to tell this year (The Christmas Spirit was strong with me this year).
> 
> Thanks for reading!!!


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